Unbelievable

I had the most amazing experience yesterday. It began with my husband asking me if I wanted to canoe on the Wabash river; a relatively tame river near us. I assured him that was a wonderful idea. There's nothing better than being out in nature, right? We're both from Minnesota and have been camping and fishing all our lives. We bought the canoe because we enjoy the Boundary Waters Canoe area between Canada and the United States. We're the "outdoorsy" type one might say.

We were on the water by 8:00 a.m. breathing the clean air and appreciating the still day "Sigh" So lovely... just quietly gliding through the water when, with absolutely no warning whatsoever, a fish (I'm guessing 8 lbs) flew out of the river and into the canoe right at my feet. Talk about almost peeing my pants! It flopped all around and bled everywhere. I screamed as my husband stared wide eyed,his mouth open. Thankfully,the fish danced its way into the center of the canoe.

After everyone calmed down (including the fish) my husband took a picture of it and then bravely picked it up and threw it back in the river. We continued our journey. I sat in the front of the canoe with fish slime all over me, my adrenaline pumping,and holding my paddle tight-- basically on red alert. I noted every bubble, every ripple, and tiny wave on the water. Another fish could attack after all. Maybe they've decided to fight back?

We saw other fish jump here and there on the river as normal fish will do. We would have thought nothing of it before our little meeting with Mr. Slimy. However,after that fish decided to greet us up close and personal, we viewed anything with scales above the water as quite threatening.

Just when our nerves were beginning to settle,we entered water with a lot of ripples on the surface. There was fish activity under the surface I just knew it. My adrenaline surged again along with my imagination. I was positive there were hundreds of those huge fish under the water stirring things up. In fact, I was in the process of telling my husband that we should get the heck out of there when, and I am not kidding you, a small school of very large fish (equally as large as the one that jumped in our canoe) breached way out of the water together like synchronized swimmers and flew through the air right next to our canoe. The water was in motion and so were we! You should have seen us paddle!

I was told later by a local fisherman that the fish are called Asian Carp. The one we saw up close in our canoe didn't look like what I think carp look like. It didn't have ugly sucker lips. It was actually quite attractive as far as fish go. Later when we were shopping in the town near by, I met a lady that lives on the Wabash River. She said there was never a problem with these fish until about three years ago. Her husband is an avid fisherman and she used to go out with him all the time, but not anymore. She's been afraid to ever since a friend was hit in the head by one of those fish and nearly fell out of his boat. Sooooo- if you want a taste of nature, paddle down the Wabash river in a canoe. It's quite the adventure!